Australia has laws that say people must have reasonable and equal access to landline phone services, payphones and broadband internet — but no such rules apply to mobile phone services.
That could be about to change. The Albanese government is considering developing a universal service obligation for mobile phone service providers, Crikey understands.
Poor phone and internet coverage is a huge problem for many Australians, especially those living in regional and remote places, with more than 50,000 complaints made to the telecommunications industry ombudsman between 2021 and 2024, according to ABC News.
Australia already has a universal service obligation that says “wherever people live or work, they must have reasonable and equal access” to landlines and payphones. The regime holds Telstra responsible for providing “standard telephone services on request to premises in Australia within reasonable timeframes, and make payphones reasonably available nationally”.
There are also rules guaranteeing premises can access high-speed broadband through the National Broadband Network (NBN), known as the statutory infrastructure provider regime.
But a 2023 parliamentary inquiry found the existing universal service obligation was facing “growing redundancy in a world dominated by online and mobile telecommunications platforms”.
One recommendation was to develop a new universal obligation to provide mobile phone services. A full year after the November 2023 report was released, the government has yet to provide a formal response to the inquiry. Crikey understands the government is currently finalising one.
“The government has consulted extensively on the future of universal service delivery and funding to support delivery of non-commercial services,” a spokesperson for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told Crikey. “Consultation has highlighted the importance and benefits of access to mobile services. The government is considering this feedback.”
The rights of Australians to have equitable access to communication services recently became the subject of a lively debate in Parliament, after independent Kennedy MP Bob Katter tried unsuccessfully to move an amendment to the NBN Companies Act that would have added a universal service obligation. The government opposed the amendment on the basis that the statutory infrastructure provider regime already exists.
“If you were sitting in a car that was dry-bogged to the eyeballs and you were praying with rosary beads for your survival when the ground temperature was about 200 degrees Fahrenheit and your father had third-degree burns and was suffering heat stroke and had nearly died, you’d probably see communications a bit differently than you city blokes see it,” Katter told Parliament last week.
“You just hope someone comes along and can get to a telephone somewhere or get somewhere to use his mobile and rescue you.”
Speaking to Crikey, Katter said the “tyranny of the majority” meant that sparsely populated rural areas were being left behind when it came to “essential services” such as phone and internet connectivity.
“Remember also, at any point in time, there are probably about 100,000 or 200,000 people wandering around inland rural Australia as tourists or visitors or people visiting relatives,” he said. “So, I mean, there’s another thing here — you’re really cutting off people in the city from access to the bush.”
Australia’s telecommunications industry ombudsman Cynthia Gebert likewise described telecommunications as essential services, which she said were “as fundamental to our way of life as the gas and electricity in our homes”.
“I have long believed that Australians would be surprised to learn that the only telecommunications service that the Australian government guarantees is a landline, when clearly mobile phone and internet services are so important in 2024,” Gebert told Crikey.
“I have made the case to the federal government that Australia needs a fit-for-purpose, updated regulatory environment that ensures both internet and mobile technology are equally guaranteed. This framework must reflect how all Australian consumers use phone and internet services, both now and into the future.”
The government is currently conducting a regional telecommunications review — a project repeated every three years — and a review into the existing universal standard obligations for landline phones. Crikey understands both are likely to cover both emerging technologies and community demands for greater mobile connectivity. Telstra’s current universal service obligation contract will last until 2032. It’s not clear exactly how Labor intends to design a new universal service obligation for mobile, or whether or not it would be incorporated into existing laws.
RMIT School of Engineering Associate Professor Mark Gregory, an expert in telecommunications, told Crikey the government should consider setting minimum performance standards that companies would have to abide by when providing services.
“If they’re going to sell a product, then it has to meet minimum performance standards,” Gregory said. “Otherwise, don’t sell it. And where it doesn’t meet those minimum performance standards, there needs to be compensation paid.”
Have something to say about this article? Write to us at letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
